Regulation of the air, the water, and the workplace has made things much better. But we could achieve even better results by regulating with incentives.
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Posted inLaw and Justice
Getting Prisons Straight
In the 1970s prison rehabilitation seemed destined for the conservatives’ trophy case of failed social programs. Now the evidence looks better: Some programs have beneficial effects on both the prisoners and the prisons.
Posted inAmerica and the World
Dubious Crusade: The Push for Agricultural Laissez Faire
The Bush administration is pushing an international agreement to do away with agricultural subsidies. But we have never practiced—for good reason—the policies we are preaching to others.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Conservative Crackup
Conservative intellectuals are now facing some of their toughest adversaries ever—each other.
Posted inAmerica and the World
Beyond the Guns of August
At this writing, American and Iraqi forces still face each other warily across the Saudi sands. Sooner or later, Iraq will likely have to reverse course. But beyond the question of how and when the immediate military crisis will be resolved, the Iraqi annexation of Kuwait has given momentum to the development of a post-Cold […]
Posted inBooks
The Growth Puzzle
Here are two books with drastically different stories about growth and productivity in the American economy. The more persuasive of the two hasn’t got the attention it deserves.
Posted inWorking in America
Fetal Risks, Women’s Rights: Showdown at Johnson Controls
For the first time, women are gaining entry to “good” jobs in manufacturing. But some companies, like battery-maker Johnson Controls, say that because of potential fetal health risks, no fertile women need apply. Should the Supreme Court let that pol
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
The Greening of the Tax System
Would an environmentalist kill two birds with one stone? Not ordinarily. But taxes on pollution and waste can discourage environmentally harmful activities and produce revenues for environmentally beneficial programs.
Posted inFeatures
The Poverty of Neoliberalism
In the late 1970s, a group of one-time liberals began describing themselves as neoliberals. ‘We criticize liberalism,” Charles Peters, editor of the neoliberal Washington Monthly, wrote in 1983, “not to destroy it but to renew it by freeing it from its myths, from its old automatic responses…” Neoliberals often join conservatives in lambasting public programs, […]
Posted inFeatures
East Asia’s Challenge—to Standard Economics
The conventional wisdom these days is that government intervention impedes development. Why, then, have Korea and Taiwan grown so fast?